Indians Prospect Insider

Paul and I will be back on the air tonight and again in our normal Thurs 9:30-10:30pm timeslot. Our final show before we take a break for the holidays and return on Thurs January 8th. We will have a special edition show on Mon Dec 29th from 9:30-10:30 to offset the loss of the two shows because of Christmas and New Year's though.....just in case anyone would miss us!;-0
Tonight we will wrap...

Note: This article was originally posted in July 2007.
The Indians selected third baseman Beau Mills with their first pick in the 2007 Draft this past June. Mills was eager to sign quickly, and upon signing started his professional career in Mahoning Valley.
Since then, however, Mills has had to endure what seems like a myriad of adjustments. One of those adjustments was the change...

I have received many inquiries on when the rankings for the 2009 season will come out and if there will be another book this year and if so when it will be available. The quick answer to that is yes my 2009 Indians Top 50 Prospect list on the site is coming, and yes there will be another book.
At the moment, I am knee deep in finishing off all the scouting reports for what looks like around...

Note: This article was originally posted in September 2007 and is being re-published here since it was written before the site went live in late-October 2007.
Coming into this season, many people did not know much about Jared Goedert or had even heard of him. He had been taken in the ninth round of the 2006 Draft out of Kansas State, but after a decent year in Mahoning Valley he was not on...

Time for another rundown of some of the stories from the week:
- Right-handed reliever Randy Newsom was our guest this past week on an extended edition of Smoke Signals which ran for 1 hour and 40 minutes this week. We talked about the recent signing of closer Kerry Wood and the Gutierrez trade which netted the Indians right-handed reliever Joe Smith and infielder Luis Valbuena. In addition...

Note: This is an article originally written in September 2007 being re-published here since it was written before the inception of this site in late October 2007.
The Indians had four second round picks in the 2006 Draft, and with one of them took a gamble on shortstop Josh Rodriguez from Rice.
The gamble was not on Rodriguez's talent as going into the season he was one of the top...

Boy do we have a jam packed show this week. Obviously, we will be talking about the Kerry Wood signing which by the time the show airs could be official once he (hopefully) passes his physical in Cleveland today. Also, we will talk about the Mariners-Indians-Mets three team trade that saw outfielder Franklin Gutierrez change his address to Seattle and RHP Joe Smith and infielder Luis Valbuena come...

The Rule 5 Draft came and went this afternoon with a flash, with the major and minor league portion of the draft being completed in less than an hour. As expected, the Indians did not lose anyone in the major league portion of the draft. And as usual, the fear over losing several prospects on this day was overstated as Jordan Brown, Randy Newsom, Chuck Lofgren, Frank Herrmann, Stephen Head, and Neil...

Indians General Manager Mark Shapiro went into the offseason with the focus and determination to upgrade the roster in three key areas: the bullpen, the starting rotation, and the infield.
In the last 48 hours, Shapiro has addressed half of those needs in acquiring free agent closer Kerry Wood to solidify the backend of the Indians bullpen, and just for good measure he was involved in a massive...

After my preview article posted yesterday, there were some comments and questions pertaining to my stance on why I now feel the Indians likely will not lose anyone in the Draft when a few weeks earlier I felt we could possibly lose a player or two.
Well, a lot of this is perspective. When you spend 95% of your time following just the Indians minor leaguers, you tend to have a personal attachment...

Wow. That came out of nowhere.
The Indians tonight completed a massive three team trade with the NY Mets and Seattle Mariners. There were lots of moving parts from all three teams, but the only thing that matters is outfielder Franklin Gutierrez was sent to the Mariners and the Indians received RHP Joe Smith from the Mets and INF Luis Valbuena from the Mariners.
I'm in the process of...

We are about 24 hours from the 2008 Rule 5 Draft, which commences at noon ET on Thursday December 11th. As the draft time nears, as with every year around this time with minor league diehards, there is some anticipation from the fans that the Indians may lose a player or two in the draft.
Predicting what ultimately happens in the Rule 5 Draft is a crapshoot, and the Indians may indeed lose...

Here are some additional details regarding the sale of Tom Mastny to the Yokohama Bay Stars in Japan:
- Mastny is excited about the deal and feels it can help jumpstart his career which he feels had stalled last season. He feels he never got comfortable last season, and with a job up in the air in Cleveland next year and him likely on the Cleveland-Columbus shuttle all year because he has two...

As was rumored yesterday, today the Cleveland Indians officially announced that they have sold the contract of right-hander Tom Mastny to the Yokohama Bay Stars of the Japanese Central League. Mastny, 27, split the 2008 season between AAA Buffalo and Cleveland. He went 2-2 with a 1.78 ERA in 28 games for Buffalo (35.1 IP, 26 H, 7 ER, 12 BB, 43 K, .206 AVG) and with the Indians he was 2-2 with a 10.80...

This article was originally written in December 2006, but with the 7-year anniversary of the Roberto Alomar trade coming up this Thursday December 11th, I felt the need to stroll down memory lane one more time and look back on the trade.
The 5-year anniversary of the Roberto Alomar trade passed earlier this month.
In what seems like a lifetime ago, it is amazing that it has only been...

This article was originally written in July of 2007, and this is being re-posted for those that missed it the first time around on TheClevelandFan.com. From the people I have talked to, Newsom is said to be one of the top 2-3 players from the Indians for the Rule 5 Draft this Thursday as noon EST. I'll have a Rule 5 preview up on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Akron right-handed reliever Randy Newsom...

Available IBI Books

The 2014 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider book featuring the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is now available. Also, previous editions from 2008-2012 are also available at a discounted rate. Just click on the book image for more information. Thanks again for all the support!